Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First I have an apology to the committee. We're pleased to have been invited, but the invitation comes as we're preparing for our seminar, which takes place February 28 and March 1, so we unfortunately did not have time to translate the materials I have with me. I have left copies with the clerk, and we will provide an electronic version so that they can be properly translated. I do apologize to you for that oversight.
I just wanted to let people know a little bit about the Canadian Nuclear Association. We have 22 reactors in Canada, operating in three provinces. In Canada, hydroelectricity actually produces 61.5% of the power, nuclear 15.5% of the power, coal 19.6%, gas 3.2%, and internal combustion 0.02%. Included as well is an ever-growing amount, as my friend next to me will say, of wind power, which is actually beginning to take hold. Those numbers are for 2006.
In Ontario the breakdown is 54% nuclear, 8% natural gas, 16% coal, and 22% hydro. You can see that nuclear power occupies a particularly important part in the development of electricity stocks for the country of Canada.
In fact, while we are in the electricity business, it is not only in the electricity business that we offer opportunities for the people of Canada to save against emissions. In particular, we're extremely proud of the fact that when we're operating our nuclear reactors, we are very low emitters of all kinds of materials this Clean Air Act is designed to forestall. We actually believe that an emphasis on developing more nuclear power in line with the Canadian technologies developed over the last 60 years would be an advantageous strategy for you to adopt.
We have just come by a report from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. It is a life-cycle study of the various types of generation: coal, oil, gas, nuclear, hydro, photovoltaic, wind, and co-generation with diesel and gas opportunities. This type of study goes through the materials for cost of electricity, but then goes one step further—something I think all of you would be interested in—to deal with the so-called externality costs. In those studies, as the graph you will ultimately see will show and as my friend Monsieur Fortin will be happy to hear, the lowest of all of these is hydro, but very close behind are nuclear and wind and photovoltaic.
In terms of the costs of the externalities, the power plants for coal, for oil, and for gas have the biggest emissions of the type you are looking to check. For the rest of the items, basically it is the very small amount of emissions associated with things like mining and the transportation of products that are used in the operation of the plants and otherwise.
In any event, the Paul Scherrer material clearly demonstrates that nuclear can play a very helpful role, in an expanded sense, in helping to meet the targets for reduced emissions, helping to clean up the air, and helping to make the world a better place for all of us.
We have a second figure in these charts. It's a little bit complex to relate to you, but it goes through the breakdown of the externality costs. It underscores the fact that there are no emissions of any degree from the nuclear cycles—because this is a full life cycle—but that our biggest emission, obviously, has to do with radioactive emissions. We spend a lot of time making sure we know how to manage and control that, and it is the subject matter of a lot of the training that goes on for the personnel who work in the facilities and for the people who are outside our items.
This particular graph, while very complex to look at and even more difficult to explain without showing, goes through radioactive emissions, volatile organic compound emissions, heavy metals, particulate matter bigger than 2.5 microns, NOx, sulphur dioxide, and greenhouse gases. When you go through that, I think you will find it edifying to see the various types of opportunities that are available to avoid these types of emissions.
In any event, I have given your clerk a site for the executive summary of the full report. A full report is available; if you wish to get it through us, we can get it for you and provide it. With a little bit of manipulation of the website, you can actually get it on your own, but we certainly would be available to put it in front of the committee.
For us, the full story here is that nuclear is a good clean technology. We will be happy to be of assistance in making sure Canada has a very good record in avoiding the types of emissions you're interested in.
In addition to that, when we look at greenhouse gas emissions, a study by the Japanese Central Research Institute in 2002 went through the list of carbon emissions and went through the following: coal, LNG thermal, LNG combined cycle, solar photovoltaic, wind, nuclear, and hydroelectric. I've read the categories in order of descending numbers. Coal is the highest, at 975 grams per kilowatt-hour, followed by LNG thermal at 608, LNG combined cycle at 519, solar PV, wind, nuclear, and hydroelectricity 53, 29, 22, and 19 grams per kilowatt-hour respectively. All of this indicates that as you get to the bottom end of this particular table, you are going for the lower emitters in terms of greenhouse gases and helping to meet the targets that are part of your goals with the Clean Air Act.
A following graph that I have goes through and gives an indication of the relative cost of producing electricity with the various types of generation available. It includes nuclear, coal, gas, wind, and others. On the other hand, it actually goes much further. I think there are about twelve or thirteen, including marine and others.
The point of the graph that you will see is only to indicate that there are costs associated with any option no matter how you decide to go about this. Particularly important is that Canada decide, under the Clean Air Act, to develop the technologies that are going to be most favourable for the regions in which they are most easily applied.
This is a great country. It has many resources that are available in abundance in very specific areas, and we should take advantage of those resources. We should also take advantage of the technologies that Canada does a good job with. In particular, we've been leading civilian nuclear use in the world for a long time. In the person of Dr. Bert Brockhouse, we have received a Nobel Prize for work in nuclear physics, something most people don't understand.
We're more than a $5-billion business, and the technology that we can put to work for Canadians is helpful not only in generating electricity, but potentially for helping with other energy projects; helping to develop hydrogen fuels for the transition to a new fuel style; and also helping with the production of medical isotopes and cancer treatments as another benefit, as you all know.
So you should look very seriously at technology and at funding technology that is proven, but also take us to the next level so that we can do even better with the things we've been able to accomplish so far.
At the end of the day, we have generation three nuclear coming on. Canada is a signatory to the generation four project internationally, and we're looking forward to the continuing involvement of the Canadian government in keeping pace with the science that is required for the next stages of development. We're looking forward to the Clean Air Act as one of those pieces of legislation that will help to push us further on developing technologies that will make Canada a better place to live.
What I'm here to tell you today is that the Canadian Nuclear Association and its members are here to help Canada meet its goals with respect to emissions, and we're very pleased to participate in your hearing.
Thank you.